Education

By connecting the past, the present, and the future, one develops a historical consciousness. This is how ARKIVET, through education, hopes to create knowledge and attitudes centred on our shared values of democracy and human dignity.

Every year, several thousand pupils visit ARKIVET. In the Gestapo Basement, they hear moving stories about local resistance members who experienced torture during the war. They see authentic instruments of torture and wander through the reconstructed cells. The guides are volunteers.

The essence of the programme is a quote from former Prime Minister of Norway and KZ prisoner, Trygve Bratteli: “We shall forgive, but not forget.” The events will not be forgotten, because there is so much we can learn from them today. After visiting the Gestapo Basement, classes are offered discussions in which issues of today such as war, peace work, human dignity, and bullying are brought in.

For those in grades upper secondary school, there are theme based programmes developed to discuss democracy, human rights, reconciliation, genocide, and bullying. In these programmes links from history to the different topics are drawn more explicitly.